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Once a year FBS hosts a "family reunion" for North America's most progressive ag producers and consultants. No sack races at the FBS User Conference, but participants do enjoy fine food, fun and fellowship and opportunities to share experiences and ideas with peers and "kindred spirits." At the same time they get to brush up on theircomputer and accounting skills and be challenged by experts with specialized knowledge not assembled at any other farm seminar.

This conference is centrally located in the Illinois-Iowa Quad Cities, serviced by Interstates 74, 80 and 88 and three major airlines, and will be held this year on Wednesday, August 28, and Thursday, August 29. We've moved the venue to the River's Bend Conference Centeradjoining the Moline Stoney Creek Inn to allow more capacity, and we've already received record registrations. However, there's still time for you to register for either or both days.

Regardless of your business focus or experience level with FBS, you'll benefit from this unique, once-a-year conference:

New users will learn tips and procedures directly from FBS staff and experienced users to make their adoption smoother.

Experienced users will enhance their effectiveness through sharing solutions to common problems with peers and learning new skills that utilize the information stored in their system.

Potential users will learn how FBS compares to their current accounting software directly from users who have already made the transition.

Consultants, accountants and advisors will meet potential clients and will be better prepared to assist their current clients take advantage of the analytical power of FBS.

Here's what some of the attendees from last year's conference told us:

"Awesome. Great growth. Very interactive!"

"A very informative seminar."

"Very good-great variety of topics-something for

everyone."

"A great place to exchange ideas and receive new

information that can be implemented on the farm."

"Great to meet the staff and ask specific questions."

Thanks to their suggestions and a great line-up of speakers, this year's conference will be even better. Read the accompanying articles and you'll see why!

and specializes in risk management, H.R. management, business planning and feasibility analysis. Moe will be covering 2012 Crop Cost of Production Benchmarks and projections for 2013.

Robert Wolfe, C.P.A.., is Senior Audit Manager with Frost, PLLC, Little Rock, Arkansas. Robert is engaged primarily in audit of food and agricultural clients and will be conducting a breakout session on Producing What Auditors Need Through FBS Accounting.

John McNutt, M.B.A., is past president of the National Pork Producers Council and a business analyst and consultant with the CPA firm Latta, Harris, Hanon & Penningroth, LLP. John will be presenting the Crop and Pork Cost of Production Benchmarks and will explain how to set up and track Multiple Accounting Entities.

Eric Jackson serves as Chief Sustainability Officer and President, Ag Services, at Conservis Corporation, Eric has 30 years of experience in commodity risk management, supply-chain, and international trading. He will be sharing his vision and insight goals in the "Looking Forward" Technology Integration Panel.

Blake Hollis, M.B.A., is a Northeast Iowa corn, soybean and hog producer at Lanehaven Farms, which embraces leading edge practices and technology to systematically standardize, flawlessly execute and continuously improve processes. Blake will share his experiences and goals in the"Looking Forward" Panel.

Bernard Peterson is partner in Peterson Farms, a 13,000 acre Kentucky family business with roots that go back to the 1700's. He will describe his operation's ongoing quest for better management information and control in the "Looking Forward" Technology Integration Panel.

FBS Users In the News

Iowa grower Ray Gaessor was recently featured in the Wall Street Journal's story, Tractor Sales Riding High. Ray's current practice is to "roll" new John Deere equipment every year but is prepared to revert back to keeping machines for five years or so "if profitability goes away and the outlook gets bad." One of the conditions that will likely change is the Section 179 deduction dropping from $500,000 to $25,000 next year.

All webinars run between 1:00 pm and 2:00 pm CDT.To register, e-mail support@fbssystems.com by 12:00 pm CDT on the day of the webinar.

Q&A of the Month--Getting Back In Balance.

Sarah Dixon, FBS Technical Services Manager.

Q. When I go look at a deposit that I entered earlier in the month why does it now show an Amt. to Balance in red? It was right when I saved it; otherwise it wouldn't have allowed me to save it!

A. That can happen if you have recently changed a ledger account to a different Class (i.e.Income, Expense, Asset, Liability or Equity). This change could have happened accidentally if you were in looking at the account setup. An entry like this can affect several things in the system and does need to be fixed.

To clear up the issue look at all of the ledger accounts used in that entry under Setup | Accounting | Ledger Accounts and double-check that they are all defined correctly. If they are, and you did purposely change the Class on a particular ledger account you will need to change the sign on the dollar amount entered in the deposit to reflect the change in Class you made or select a different ledger account that will balance the entry. If you didn't mean to change the ledger account Class then change it back to the correct Class and save the ledger accounts. Next, go back to the deposit and click through the out-of-balance line and re-save the entry once the Amt. to Balance is zero.

A good way to catch errors like this is to run the TransAction Plus User Defined Report with the box on the top right to "Print Undefined Entries" checked at the end of each month!

Editor's note: Sarah will be teaching these breakout sessions at the 2013 FBS User Conference: